i didn't sleep too long before i woke up again around 8:00, this time to the sound of the painter scrapping the paint off of the window right next to my bed. there was no way i could sleep through that so i got out of bed. i was scheduled to revisit client N at 10:00 but i wrote molly if i could come in earlier. i left after 9:00, just in time to see gerry and wayne arriving to work. even though cleber had already met gerry on monday, i reintroduced them. this was the first time they were working together and it seemed like they were getting along.
i bicycled to allston because i was afraid it'd rain and i didn't want to ride the motorcycle 
in a downpour and have to worry about covering it up afterwards. it was a pretty straight-forward ride, 3 miles distance, but i was a bit worked up when i arrived and was dripping sweat on the computer parts. i set up 3 machines and left before 11:00. instead of going home via north harvard street, i crossed soldiers field road onto the charles river trail and crossed the eliot bridge.
i came home to find everyone working diligently. cleber was busy painting, while gerry and wayne were cutting the proper length of window molding and attaching them with a pneumatic nail gun. it was nice seeing everything coming together. i dashed off an e-mail to steve updating him that things were going well. gerry told me they needed more clapboards than what he originally budgeted for and asked if we could add an additional $150 when we finally pay him the rest of the money.
around 1:00 i left the house once more to get some groceries from market basket. the weather was cloudy but no precipitation yet. i bicycled once more, figuring the rain would be imminent. this time i got a chance to use my new u-lock. i didn't bring the security cable because it's a hassle to use, which meant it left my wheels defenseless should somebody decide to pull the quick-release and steal them. i bought the basics - bread, eggs, milk, a carton of grape soda. returning home, i began to feel some raindrops.
 |
 |
 |
i finally had enough ingredients to make lunch. i made a scrambled egg with scallions and crumbled bits of exotic blue cheese and a few dollops of coriander chutney, a piece of toasted wheat bread with grape preserve, and all washed down with a fruit smoothie. cleber came in to use the bathroom and told me gerry was doing a very good job.
 |
 |
 |
maybe cleber had been a bit premature with his praise. cleber left around 2:00 (once it started to rain a little bit heavier; 
returning tomorrow morning to continue painting), and gerry and wayne disappeared half an hour later. and when i say they disappeared, i mean they literally disappeared. all their ladders and scaffolding and tools were everywhere, raw cedar clapboards were left outside, and they even forgot to close my basement door with the lights turned on. 
the worst part was a dangerously rain-soaked power strip just lying on the ground. i covered up the tools with some trash bags and pushed the power strip to drier grounds. i figured maybe they went out for a late lunch, but when they still didn't show up by 4:00, i got a little suspicious. gerry does good work, but he's awfully unreliable. like how he didn't show up yesterday, and even when he did come to work today, he mysteriously left without saying anything. at this point i'm holding him to his promise that he'll finish all the repairs by tomorrow (saturday). i can't wait until he leaves, there's something a bit shady about him.
i had a bit of drama with a moving truck. while backing up, they bumped into the locust tree in front of my house. they hit it hard enough that i saw the whole tree shaking. they were delivering some appliances to my next door neighbor margot. i went outside to survey the damage. "can i help you?" one of the delivery guy asked me. "you hit the tree," i told him, walking around to get a better look. he pretended to be surprised. "no we didn't," he said. "yeah you did, i saw the whole thing," while pointing to a dented part of the truck. the second delivery man came out and voiced the same opinion. when i told him about the damage to his truck, he said that'd always been there. finally he relented and confessed that he might've bumped into the tree, but gave me an angry, "so what?" "you could've cracked it," i told him. "what do you care? the city would just chop it down anyway," he replied derisively, giving his friend a "can you believe this guy?" glance and brushing me off with his hands. i stared at him for a few seconds then copied down his license plate number. i made a show of it, like maybe i'd call the cops, but the tree seemed to be fine, so no harm no foul.
i left again for a 4:30 meeting with client P in cambridgeport. by then the rain had become a steady drizzle and i could hardly see through my rain-soaked glasses. 
it took me about 15 minutes to get there. i was introduced to chris, the designated designer on the project (his first interactive). the meeting lasted 2 hours. it was still raining by the time i left, the overcast sky near dark. i went to the nearby coast cafe to get some more of that delicious fried chicken i've been thinking about since the last time i ate there. it was crowded with customers and i waited more than 20 minutes before i got my order (my wait was made longer because they screwed up my order and gave it to somebody else instead; next time call first).
riding in the rain is no fun, on the motorcycle or the bicycle. my glasses covered in raindrops, my mouth sputtering water, and my clothes soaked. i was afraid of hitting a deep pothole in the dark 
and getting thrown off the bike. or maybe somebody would open a parked car door and i'd crash into it. or a passing car might run me off the road. i was so happy when i finally made it home. i didn't even bother putting the bike away in the basement, i just locked it outside, rain and all. it took a few minutes of getting out of my wet clothes and drying off before i could finally settle down to my dinner.